US Troops Seen Transporting Logistic Equipment, Weapons to Military Base in N. Syria
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A US convoy was seen by Syrian locals carrying arms and logistical supplies, as well as many armored vehicles, in the northwestern province of al-Hasakah, Syrian media reported.
According to reports, the convoy of 24 trucks was on its way to the US base in al-Shaddadi, south of al-Hasaka, loaded with weapons, ammunition, and refrigerators, SANA reported.
In northwestern Syria, another US convoy was recently spotted. On April 12, American forces crossed the border into Iraq and transported 41 tankers of oil stolen from the Hasaka countryside. According to a previous story, the US transported weapons and logistical equipment into Syria's Hasakah province from bases in Iraq, with the incoming shipment containing 59 refrigerator trucks.
According to SANA, the US military transported 70 Daesh militants from Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled prisons in al-Hasakah to its base in the At Tanf region on the Syrian-Jordanian border in January. According to the news agency, the military base in the At Tanf area serves as a "sanctuary for terrorists in the country," where they are armed.
The US forces were deployed to Hasakah and Deir Ez-Zur - which are, in fact, the most oil-and gas-rich provinces in the Arab republic - without official consent from the Syrian government. Damascus has repeatedly appealed to the international community to denounce the American military presence in the country as illegal and a violation of Syria's sovereignty, pointing out that it is aimed at controlling the oil fields in northern Syria.
Former US President Donald Trump announced in 2018 that the United States would be bringing home troops from Syria. However, he later changed his mind, saying that a residual force of US troops will remain in northeast Syria to "secure the oil".
In August 2020, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that American oil firm Delta Crescent Energy had secured a deal to modernize oil fields controlled by the Kurdish militia. The deal was slammed by the Syrian government as being designed for the purpose of "stealing Syrian oil".
A political and media adviser to the Syrian president, Bouthaina Shaaban, told Sputnik then that "it is not a deal, it is a robbery of the Syrian oil that is the right of the Syrian people to use and to take".
